The Supreme Court has taken up a challenge to the 1965 Voting Rights Act passed by President Lyndon Johnson. The landmark law tore down barriers to minority voting, but challengers say the law is too intrusive and no longer necessary today.

On this 100th day of the Obama presidency, the US Supreme Court took up a challenge to the landmark civil rights law that helped make the election possible. It's the Voting Rights Act, the work of President Lyndon Johnson, passed back in 1965. The question for the court today: Is the law still needed? Our NBC News justice correspondent Pete Williams has more.

PETE WILLIAMS reporting:

In a dramatic US Capitol ceremony with Martin Luther King watching, Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

President LYNDON B. JOHNSON: (From file footage) Today is a triumph for freedom.

P. WILLIAMS: It tore down barriers to black voting that were spreading faster than civil rights groups could stop them. But now, with the election of the first African-American president and more minorities voting and holding office, challengers from Austin, Texas, say the law is too intrusive.

Mr. CHRIS WARD (Lawyer for Challengers): That part of the law was appropriate in 1965, and necessary and important to stop the bleeding. But after 40 years, its time has passed.

Unidentified Woman: Thank you very much.

P. WILLIAMS: It requires the Justice Department to review election rules in all or part of eight Southern states, and Arizona, Alaska and a scattering of areas with a history of vote discrimination. Its defenders say they've found over 1,000 attempts to limit minority voting in the past 25 years.

Mr. DEBO ADEGBILE (NAACP Legal Defense Fund): We've seen that discrimination takes root. It grows back. The weeds are still there, and the--and it will come back, and minority communities will be disadvantaged.

SAN JUAN COUNTY, Utah — Tara Benally and her 16-year-old son Delaney After Buffalo set up a plastic table alongside the last dusty highway intersection before the Arizona state line. Here in Monument Valley, in the shadows of the towering red rock monoliths sacred among the Navajo, the two are doing something that's rarely been done in this part of Utah: conducting a voter registration drive for local Native Americans.

The Supreme Court has taken up a challenge to the 1965 Voting Rights Act passed by President Lyndon Johnson. The landmark law tore down barriers to minority voting, but challengers say the law is too intrusive and no longer necessary today.

SAN JUAN COUNTY, Utah — Tara Benally and her 16-year-old son Delaney After Buffalo set up a plastic table alongside the last dusty highway intersection before the Arizona state line. Here in Monument Valley, in the shadows of the towering red rock monoliths sacred among the Navajo, the two are doing something that's rarely been done in this part of Utah: conducting a voter registration drive for local Native Americans.

On this 100th day of the Obama presidency, the US Supreme Court took up a challenge to the landmark civil rights law that helped make the election possible. It's the Voting Rights Act, the work of President Lyndon Johnson, passed back in 1965. The question for the court today: Is the law still needed? Our NBC News justice correspondent Pete Williams has more.

PETE WILLIAMS reporting:

In a dramatic US Capitol ceremony with Martin Luther King watching, Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

President LYNDON B. JOHNSON: (From file footage) Today is a triumph for freedom.

P. WILLIAMS: It tore down barriers to black voting that were spreading faster than civil rights groups could stop them. But now, with the election of the first African-American president and more minorities voting and holding office, challengers from Austin, Texas, say the law is too intrusive.

Mr. CHRIS WARD (Lawyer for Challengers): That part of the law was appropriate in 1965, and necessary and important to stop the bleeding. But after 40 years, its time has passed.

Unidentified Woman: Thank you very much.

P. WILLIAMS: It requires the Justice Department to review election rules in all or part of eight Southern states, and Arizona, Alaska and a scattering of areas with a history of vote discrimination. Its defenders say they've found over 1,000 attempts to limit minority voting in the past 25 years.

Mr. DEBO ADEGBILE (NAACP Legal Defense Fund): We've seen that discrimination takes root. It grows back. The weeds are still there, and the--and it will come back, and minority communities will be disadvantaged.

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